Ben Jeffrey is an incredibly tall man with big voice to match his stature. Even when he is sitting down for an interview he can’t stop moving, fiddling with his water bottle and speaking excitedly about his time staring as Pumbaa in The Lion King on Broadway.
Watching him up onstage doesn’t a feel a whole lot different from speaking to him one on one. As he kicked off his cabaret performance in Farmville last Friday with a big exciting song from The Last Five Years, his chemistry was palpable. He truly enjoyed performing for us, and we thoroughly enjoyed being in the audience.
It’s no wonder Jeffery has so much energy; he performs eight shows in six days when he is back home in New York. Keeping up his stamina is key; his entrance in The Lion King comes at the end of act one. He runs onto the stage screaming, and he relates it to “being shot out of a cannon.”
Pumbaa is a big character, one that requires an extreme amount of charisma and enthusiasm. When young audience members come to the show, he is very recognizable to them. Their favorite movie has come to life. No wonder Jeffrey is a fan favorite.
“Particularly playing the role I play that’s the best part. You just hear kids squealing and laughing, and it doesn’t get much better than that.” Said Jeffrey.
He makes the same impact with audiences of all ages, during his one night only performance a small group of Longwood theatre students sat in the audience with rapt attention. They laughed and applauded hard and loud, clearly fresh off of one of the workshops Jeffrey offered during his week here.
To say Jeffrey has been lucky in his career would be an understatement. He spent only four months in New York before landing his big break as Pumbaa. He’s been playing the role for six years. He still happily recalled the day he got the big news.
“I was like I want to tell everyone I know, but if I tell anyone before I tell my wife she’ll leave me” joked Jeffrey. “She was at work. She had just started a new job all the way on the Upper East Side. So I like jumped in a cab, and we didn’t have money for cabs back then, but I was like I’ve got to get there quick! So I went in, and I said I’m looking for Christina.”
Jeffrey jumped for joy with his wife before getting back in his cab and calling his parents. His mother had been the one to start him on his path to Broadway. Back in Kansas City Jeffrey’s mom had started a theatre group for him and other homeschooled kids. When it started, it was him and eight other kids. By the time Jeffrey graduated high school nearly 200 families were involved. Jeffrey’s parents were overwhelmed with pride at the news.
“When they came and saw me on the first night that I was in the show, they wore matching mother and father of the warthog t-shirts” said Jeffrey.
Despite the fact that he’s made it to the Great White Way, live theatre still comes with twists and turns. Even on Broadway technical things can go wrong that force performers into some sticky situations. Jeffrey recalled a time in which the actor playing Timon got stuck in an elevator. He had to make some quick decisions.
“He was stuck down there for probably two full minutes, which felt like about ten years. I just started moaning about how he was dead and singing amazing grace. I was about to start running out into the audience and being like ‘I’m so alone will someone hold me?’ because I was desperate at that point. Finally they got the elevator going, and Timon came back up”
Jeffrey admits that after six years of performances these little missteps give him and the other performers a chance to play. He definitely used that playful spirit during his performance here at Longwood. Watching him perform with Fran Coleman, Lacy Klinger, Chris Swanson and Teri Duke Kidd was certainly a treat. The Longwood faculty held their own with their outstanding performances alongside Jeffrey.
Jeffrey isn’t sure when his time as Pumbaa will be over, but for now life seems pretty Hakuna Matata for this talented performer.
